“We Still Have Parsnip!” The headline jumped off the page this morning as I opened my email from Lockwood Farm. My heart raced briefly and I realized how much life has changed since I began the deep dive into the nature of nature, and the food-as-medicine way of living and land use.
It can be easy to become overwhelmed by the noise of the world and the people in charge. Easy to feel helpless and apathetic; to believe there is little we can do to control the runaway train of compromised health and climate change. That simply isn’t true.
There is so much that we can do, everyday, if we allow ourselves and others the space and the grace to move slowly, one step at a time, and begin where we are.
This week marks the first official week of the holiday rush, when consumers consume with the best of intentions but also unintended consequences. There is time still to pause and reflect on our choices, and downshift enough to affect change.
Shop certainly, but buy local, check labels, support small independent businesses and traditional trades. At the top of your gift list, create some guidelines, namely: Where does it come from? What is it made of? What will become of it? And let those questions guide your purchases.
Wrapping your gifts in materials like recycled brown paper, a vintage scarf, or a cotton dish towel is not only kinder to the environment than buying non-recycled wrapping paper printed overseas, but it announces to the recipient that you are consciously treading more lightly, perhaps even preparing them for contents that might give them pause.
Locally made beeswax candles, tallow moisturizer, artisanal pottery, vintage china, farmers market membership, balcony gardening lessons, pre-owned books, Christmas market pottery, heirloom cast iron, home-preserved tomatoes and pickles, home-grown herbal teas, and yes, even a big bundle of parsnips – all on my gift list.
Also, easy-to-digest, non-polarizing books that simply illustrate connections between what we eat, what we eat eats, and how those two things affect human and planetary health. Books like Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means, Eat to Beat Disease by Dr. William Li, The Nature of Nature and the Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change by Vandana Shiva, The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, and Young Forever by Dr. Mark Hyman, will be gifted this year, primarily to those whose worldview I am hoping to gently influence.
Gifting items that people need treads lighter on the planet and our conscience than gifting what popular culture suggests we want. Exercise, for example; we all need it, so why not gift an activity like guided mushroom foraging, snow shoeing or kayaking – including rentals, Stanley Park bike riding, hiking, or other such adventures?
Time, that most precious of all commodities, can be wrapped in occasion and gifted as a Sunday spent together preparing and cooking a special meal that resides in memory, or inspires memories. Our youngest daughter gifts such experiences regularly and gets as much or more out of the giving than the recipients.
This holiday season, consider giving yourself, family, friends, the community and the planet some respite from the ravages of consumerism. Make a list, check it twice, decide not to be naughty but instead to be nice – to ourselves and each other, and to those who have not, and be proud of deciding that we just have to stop.
Stop buying superfluous, trendy and such, and instead give some thought and some time and some touch. Change is hard, but so well received.
Laura Marie Neubert is a West Vancouver-based urban permaculture designer. Follow her on Instagram @upfrontandbeautiful, learn more about permaculture by visiting her Upfront & Beautiful website or email your questions to her here.
For a taste of permaculture, watch the video below:
